Talks with Pak won't succeed: RSS chief

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Thursday said talks between India and Pakistan will not yield any results as long as Islamabad continued its 'antagonistic mindset' towards India.

"Pakistan has a continuous antagonistic mindset towards India. Unless that attitude is changed, talks will never be fruitful," RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said when asked about the foreign secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan.

"For the success of talks, the situation does not matter. The mindset matters more. India has always offered readiness for talks. But Pakistan has adopted an approach that it cannot live with Bharat," Bhagawat said at a press meet in Thiruvananthapuram.

"Pakistan should change this mindset, then it will be beneficial to them also," he said.

Voicing concern over infiltration from across the border, he said effective steps should be taken to prevent it, since this was a matter of national security.

On the beheading of two Sikhs by Taliban in Pakistan, Bhagwat accused the Indian government of not taking effective steps to protect people of Indian origin in other countries.

"There is a general complaint abroad that our government is not doing enough to protect NRIs. The government should do more about that," he said.

Rubbishing reports about the possible involvement of 'Hindu terror outfits' in the Pune blast, Bhagwat said, "This bogey has been created ever since the Malegaon blasts."

Bhagwat also said that RSS did not have any link with Karnataka based right-wing outfit Sriram Sene and did not subscribe to their activities.

Speaking on the Bharatiya Janata Party, he said it would be able to resurrect and fulfill its role as an opposition party in the present context by adopting organisational changes, as suggested by the RSS. Though it was a political party which the RSS did not want to bring under its tight control, certain suggestions to improve the organisation had been put forward to its leaders, like bringing young blood and strengthening idealist moorings.

They have accepted them and are pursuing that course, he said. On the Telengana issue, he said the RSS was not opposed to the creation of small states for the convenience of administration and development.

"So if the majority felt in favour of a separate state, there is nothing wrong in examining the issue and forming a state," he said.

Bhagwat said the Sangh would continue its movement for constructing the Ram temple at Ayodhya as it was a symbol of 'national character' and it was wrong to construe it as a religious goal.

On the prolonged hostility between RSS and the Communist Party of India - Marxist in parts of Kannur district in Kerala, which has claimed many lives over the decades, he said he was always prepared for one-to-one talks with Marxists to ensure peace in the area.